09 DECEMBER 2016

Former Champ Murdered In Venezuela

Former WBA super bantamweight and featherweight champion Antonio Cermeno was kidnapped and killed in his native Venezuela on Tuesday, according to police.

Cermeno’s body was found on Tuesday on a road in the central state of Miranda, local police chief Eliseo Guzman said. He had been shot.

In a statement Guzman said Cermeno and members of his family were kidnapped on Monday night in east Caracas.

Cermeno’s relatives escaped when the kidnappers stopped to refuel their car Guzman said.

Venezuela has the fifth highest homicide rate in the world. Cermano’s killing comes after the killing of actress and former Miss Venezuela Monica Spear in early January. Robbers killed the 29-year-old and her former husband, Thomas Henry Berry on an isolated stretch of highway while the couple was returning to the capital by car with their 5-year-old daughter.